Ishrat case: PP Pandey’s bail plea rejected

A special CBI court in Ahmedabad on Tuesday rejected the anticipatory bail application of ADGP PP Pandey, paving the way for his arrest in the 2004 fake encounter case of IshratJahan and three others.

Special CBI judge Gita Gopi rejected the anticipatory bail application of Pandey, who had gone underground for a few months after his name surfaced in the encounter case.

The court had declared him proclaimed absconder then. The special court was hearing his application afresh on the directions of the Gujarat high court which had restrained CBI from arresting the senior IPS officer till 6 August.

The 1982-batch IPS officer was Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime), Ahmedabad, when Mumbai-based Ishrat, her friend Javed Shaikh, alias Pranesh Pillai, and their associates Amjad Ali Rana and Zeeshan Johar were gunned down by crime branch sleuths on 15 June, 2004 on the city outskirts.

The CBI had named seven Gujarat police officers including Pandey in the chargesheet filed last month in the case. The chargesheet had termed the encounter to be fake and had also held that it was a joint operation between Gujarat police and Intelligence Bureau.